Here's The Painting That Inspired The Entire Look Of 'Guardians Of The Galaxy'

Director James Gunn at the UK premiere of "Guardians of the Galaxy" with Oreo, the raccoon who inspired Rocket Racoon in the film. James Gillham/StingMedia.co.uk If you're not following "Guardians of the Galaxy" director James Gunn on Facebook or Instagram, you should.

Here's how he explains the painting's inspiration and what happened during that meeting:

Yellow is an underused color in films, especially science-fiction and fantasy films. In Guardians, I used it as a signifier of change, rebirth, and redemption - the yellow prison uniforms, Drax drowning in the yellow spinal fluid, the yellow Groot spores, and the yellow interlocking Nova Corps net... I believe color is a part of what made Guardians successful. When so many huge, spectacle films have the beige color palette of Saw, the brain becomes thirsty for color. We were that technicolor pitcher of water at the edge of the summer desert.

The "Groot spores" James Gunn refers to. Disney/Marvel

This doesn't mean all movies should be colorful, just that color in general is important, and too much of one thing is boring. If, over the next few years, films become oversaturated with bright colors, brains will be relieved by a film entirely hazel and gray.

Anyway, this painting, along with other Chris Foss works, was a part of my original presentation to Marvel when I pitched myself as director and I explained the visual direction I was going to take with the film. They were immediately on board, and we ended up hiring Chris Foss to help design some of the spaceships in the film. He was, of everyone, my biggest visual inspiration on Guardians.